Show Notes
Democracies work best when everyone can participate meaningfully, but wealthy special interests and a small number of big donors have come to dominate the funding of political campaigns - if money is speech, some people (and groups, and corporations) are speaking MUCH louder than others.
In the season finale, Simone dives into the world of public financing, examining how two cities on opposite sides of the country took important steps to provide candidates with public funds to support their election efforts. Programs like those now in use in Seattle, Washington and Washington, D.C. can reorient our elections by encouraging the best and brightest candidates to seek public office and motivating them to connect with the people they want to represent.
More from Democracy Decoded
Host Simone Leeper is joined by League of Women Voters' Marcia Johnson, Campaign Legal Center's Anna Baldwin, and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar to trace the Trump administration's multi-front campaign against naturalized and first-generation voters and discuss what happens when a president tries to choose his voters instead of the other way around.
Host Simone Leeper is joined by Campaign Legal Center’s Jonathan Diaz and Chad Dunn of the UCLA Voting Rights Project to explore how attempts to undermine our elections reveal a coordinated effort to erode trust in American democracy, both historically and in the run-up to the 2026 midterms.
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